


Flying Free

by AwesomeHeart



Series: Three Friends for Three Waynes [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Could kill you with a nail file Chloe, F/M, Jeweler Adrien, fashion designer marinette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25195144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwesomeHeart/pseuds/AwesomeHeart
Summary: With things going well for Adrien, Marinette decides to take things into her own hands and get some peace of her own.The only way is up after being a downward spiral for so long.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Jason Todd
Series: Three Friends for Three Waynes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1825198
Comments: 11
Kudos: 131





	1. No More

“Deep breathes… you can do it… this needs to be done… deep breathes now.” Marinette shook her hands back and forth as she paced about in her room. A whine escaped as she tried to stop herself from downward spiralling further. 

Tikki watched her guardian as she munched her cookie sadly. The pacing had been happening for a few weeks now as Marinette struggled with all her responsibility in school, at home, ladybug as well as Guardian. Something had to be done and Marinette was close to her breaking point. 

“I can do this!” Marinette squeaked as she slapped her face to gather her focus and went forward to her trap door only to falter and whine all over again. “I can’t do this!” 

“Guardian.” She squeaked as she turned around to see Wayzz floating above his tiny tea set. She nodded her head for him to continue. “You have come this far, you can go further, and we believe in you. One step at a time and you will breathe easier for what you are about to do.” 

She gave a watery smile before closing her eyes with a deep sigh to recollect herself. She was strong. She was not selfish for asking to leave the toxic environment. Her parents would hear her out and think no less of her for it. She opened her eyes and a determined look took over her face as she straightened herself out with confidence. 

“I can do this.” 

Both Kwami smiled at their Guardian as she left the room and went onto the rooftop to keep a lookout for butterflies. Just in case.

Marinette crept down slowly so and looked into the livingroom to see her parents cuddled up on the sofa watching a movie. They looked tired after a long day of work and filling orders that she hated that she had to break their peace to finally have some of her own. She fidgeted with her hands as she entered the room with enough noise to alert them both that she was there.

Sabine and Tom glanced over at the nose and eased themselves into a sitting position. There was a look of worry on their face when they looked over their daughter. The worry itched into Sabine's voice. “Sweetie… What’s wrong?”

“I…” Marinette’s voice hitched that she shook her head and tried to start over. “I’m being bullied and threatened at school. I don’t trust my teacher or principal to do right by me. I don’t feel safe there any longer.” 

They looked at each other before Sabine opened her arms which her daughter immediately ran into and the both of them collapsed against Tom. Marinette openly wept, something that she hadn’t done in months. He stroked her hair as gently as he could with his large hand. “We’re here for you my lil macaron.” 

Marinette mumbled a watery thank you as she tried to stop her tears escaping further. She wiped her tears away while she hiccuped and leaned a little away so that she could see both of them. “Thank you so much. This means so much to me.” 

“So what have you got planned?” Sabine smiled weakly at her surprise, she stroked her daughters back. “You have always been a planner so no doubt you have something in mind dear.” 

Tom smiled at the two important people in his life and took Marinette’s small hand into his large ones. “What would you like to do and how can we help?” 

Marinette looked between them both and a smile of relief graced her face slowly. “If you allow it… I would like to leave school.” 

\-----

Once the plan was explained and all the necessary things were in place. Marinette walked to school for her last day. She nearly went to cross the road when she stepped back having been pulled by Tikki from inside her hoodie. A motorbike had quickly sped past her in what she could only assume was in a hurry. She snorted as it reminded her of her ‘test’ to be ladybug. 

“Mar!” 

Marinette glanced up to see Adrien waving his arm around like a madman. Chole was standing next to him with a tray of drinks and a hand on her hip. They seemed to be rather happy. An easy smile graced her face as she walked towards her allies. With her plan to leave the school the both of them decided to put in a transfer to change to Mrs. Mendeleiev class, which didn’t take into effect until after she left.

“Hello you two.” Marinette gave a one armed hug to the both of them and smiled more when Chole handed her a drink from the tray. “Owh! Thank you.” 

“First part of the celebration Maribug.” Chole passed the other drink to Adrien and took the last one for herself to put the tray in the trash as they walked into the school. “Second is lunch and the third is a semi girls night at mine.” 

“My hair getting long enough that I get to be one of the girls.” Adrien grinned from behind his cup as he held out his hand with a few simple rings to check his nails. “Could do with a manicure. What you think? Pearlescent or pitch black?”

“Oo Maybe holo? I got some new stuff in the mail that I really wanna try.” Chole eyes brightened as she turned to drag Marinette into the conversation and quickly snatched her fingers causing the girl to giggle at the enthusiasm. 

She giggled even more as Chole checked each nail, the feeling of fingers running over hers was rather ticklish to her that she had to pull away. “Stop please, you can check them later.”

Chole huffed as she readjusted her bag and took a huffy sip at her drink. “Spoiling my fun. How dare you.” 

“Very Dare.” Marinette chuckled as Chole scrunched her nose in distaste. 

“Much Spoil.” Adrien nearly cackled at Chole’s groaned but his fun diminished when he spotted Lila and Alya heading towards them. One upset. The other angry. He finished his drink quickly trashed it before catching his girls by the arms and dragged them to the classroom with haste. “They're here.”

The girls didn’t protest as they were pulled into the classroom. Though they did get some weird looks from the ones that were already there. Thankfully no one that would report back to Lila. Juleka gave a tentative wave as they passed her by and turned in her seat when the three of them squeezed into the bench behind her. “Is everything okay?”

Marinette gave the best reassuring smile as she could between the two blondes. She was glad that Juleka had given her a chance to explain her side of what was happening before she blindly followed Lila like most of the class. Juleka was unfortunately in the same situation as Nino when it came to loving someone that was blind to the lies. “It’s my last day.”

“Owh... “ Juleka shifted her hair away from her face before it fell back into place. “I’m glad… if it was what you wanted.”

“It is.” Marinette clasped her hands together and was going to say more but was caught off by Lila and Alya coming into the classroom. She lowered her head and mumbled. “It is.”

\-----

Other than the morning disgust of Lila doing her attention seeking of claiming to ‘know’ MDC. The three had snickered at that. The day wasn’t too bad. Juleka, Alex, Max and Nino had wished her luck on her out of school adventures and if anything happened that involved her, within school, they would inform the blondes who would then tell her if it was something to worry over. 

Despite people starting to have her back again she still felt that it was her best choice to get out of the school and work on feeling safe again. She waved as Chole and Adrien left for the hotel as she had some stuff to do before heading over for the sleepover. She was pretty happy over the fact that Gabriel was letting Adrien have some more freedom with them, even though it was as long as they taught Adrien something to do with his jewelry line. They took what they could get while helping out their friend get out from under his father’s thumb. 

She crossed over the street and noticed that the motorbike from this morning was in front of her parent’s shop. She took a moment to look it over and found it to be well taken care of and seemed to have been with the person for a few years now. She couldn’t help but crouch down and pulled out her mini sketchbook to take some details of the motorbike. 

She was so engrossed that she didn’t see her maman shaking her head in fond amusement and a young gentleman watching her with interest. Not until the man sat beside her and was looking over her shoulder. “Like what you see?”

She squeaked and threw up her sketchbook in panic as she struck out. The man thanked his street instincts that he managed to catch the punch with his hand instead of his face. She blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry! You startled me!”

“It’s alright! I should have been louder in order to not startle you.” He grinned widely that it showed a dimple. “Though you were so in the zone that I couldn't stop myself. So apologies for that.” 

Marinette tried to stop herself from whining as she tried to hide her face with her free hand. “It’s okay… but can I have my hand back please?”

“Ah! Sorry.” He chuckled nervously as he let go of her hand and lent away a smidge as to give her some space to breathe. “Anyways… been looking for you.” 

Marinette blinked and tensed. He was looking for her? Her Marinette? Her ladybug or her Guardian? “Looking for me?”

“Hm?” The man tilted his head and relaxed his shoulders. “You’re MDC yeah? Jagged Stone recommended you when we were talking about his music and ended up talking about needing a new leather jacket. He praised his rockin’ niece and pointed me in this direction.” 

“Owh… Owh! MDC! Yeah yeah…” Marinette burst with nervous laughter, she forgot the fourth one. She waved her hand back and forth in front of her face to wave away the embarrassment. “Is it okay to call Jagged to confirm?”

“Be worried if you didn’t” The man leaned back on his hands and stretched out his legs in a relaxed manner. Oblivious to Marinette's panic and embarrassment. The grin turned charming as she watched him. “The names Todd. Jason Todd.” 

She giggled at that as it reminded her of something that Adrien had done once when introducing himself. Bond had nothing on these two. “How about we head in and I’ll call him. Think my legs have gone to sleep from the crouch.” 

Jason's laughter did funny things to her as he did a fancy flip thing to stand up, show off, and held his hand out to her. “Shall we head indoors then?”

Marinette took a moment to collect herself and her sketchbook before allowing her hand into his. She smiled warmly up at him as he let his boyish charm shine through and she felt herself smiling wider than what she had done in ages. “Let’s.”

As they made his way through the shop and upstairs to her home. She felt herself relax at the prospect that no one was out to get her. She was safe, she was finally getting her peace and things were on the up.she whispered to herself in reassurance, “Things will be okay.”


	2. Relationships

Nice calming music could be heard through a hidden room as Trixx, Barkk and Duusu flew around chasing each other. Duusu was having the time of her life as she teased the two canine kwamis with her tail feathers before swiftly dodging their swipes. 

Roarr was lazing next to a sun/heat lap on a personalized cushion that the creative guardian had gifted them as Ziggy sat contently with their salt lick. Mullo and Longg were watching Orikko dance around with paint on their talons in order to make a picture to surprise Marinette with. It was a very… expressive painting. 

Tikki was happy to see her fellow kwamis out and about enjoying themselves. She watched quietly from her spot in her part of a dollhouse that Marinette helped them create. Each room in the dollhouse had been personalised to maximise the relaxation of each kwami while they were outside their miraculous. Tikki was so very glad that things worked out with Marinette and how much she had grown into a more confident woman. 

Speaking of which she floated upwards and phased through the wall in search of her chosen. She giggled when she spotted Marinette sleepily fixing food and drinking coffee. The midday nap with Jason seemed to have left her more tired than expected. She flew over and gave an affection nuzzle to Marinette’s cheek before leaving back to the Kwami room to leave her wake up in her own time. 

Marinette smiled in her sleep induced daze before yawning behind her cup. She eased herself backward when she felt a hand slide against her waist. “Afternoon handsome.”

“Afternoon beautiful.” Jason muttered against the top of her head which had her giggling. He gently tapped one of the fluffiest of space buns upon her head and put on a childish voice. “It so fluffy I could diiiie.”

She swiped at his hand with her free hand as she laughed and placed her coffee down so that she could turn around into his embrace. There was a subtle shift in stance as Jason lifted her up onto a clear space of countertops and leaned his forehead against hers. Marinette smiled and placed a gentle kiss against his lips. “Glad to see you’re feeling better after what happened earlier.” 

Jason groaned at the reminder and burrowed his face into her neck to hide the little embarrassment that he had. “Weak moment, i’m sorry.”

“No need to be sorry for how you felt. You know that.”She nudged the side of his head with her nose and when he did shift she started nibbling at his ear. 

He groaned in a different manner from earlier and shifted to press their bodys closer. His voice muffled against her skin. “We can’t do a repeat of earlier. We’ve got work to do.”

“I’m my own boss. It’s just unfortunate that Chloe’s partly yours.” She nipped one last time causing Jason to tilt his head back at the sharpness of it. “Reading to the kids tonight or teaching self defence to the teenagers?”

“Both.” He twisted his finger around some of the loose hair framing her face. He really couldn’t get enough of her despite having been with Marinette for five years now. Known for ten. “Harmony playing assistant to me tonight for self defence class so it shouldn’t be too hard tonight. I think she might be overcompensating for something but I haven’t figured it out yet.”

“If what Chloe and Pollen have said about Melody being a potential for a miraculous. It might have something to do with that.” She closed her eyes in thought. “Harmony, being the big sister, might be worried that she would be holding Melody back since she is not able to weld one herself.”

“I’ll talk it over with her if that's the case.” Jason mused thoughtfully. “Can understand the sibling and powerless point if that’s what she is having issues with.”

Marinette giggled “Big brother Jason strikes again.”

She squeaked when she received a light smack to her thigh but couldn’t retaliate as Jason had moved swiftly away and stretched showing off his abs. She hopped off the countertop and started to chase Jason around their living room excitedly. They took swipes at each other before being swept up in each other with kisses and nips. 

Before they got further in their undress they were interrupted by two different ring tones. They both huffed as they searched for their respective phones and picked up. “Hello?”

“Detach yourself from Marinette and bring your butt off yours down here. Got a couple of kids here looking for you and they are making the place untidy.” Dead tone.

He glanced over to see Marinette rubbing her forehead as she listened to the person on her phone and wondered if he should risk staying or not. 

Marinette smiled sweetly when he noticed him and waved him off when he mouthed Chloe and the door. He took that as an invitation to leave and pressed a kiss to her temple. She watched him adjust his clothes as he left and she went back to listening to Adrien talking about his date with Damien. “How about you come over with food and we can talk about it in person? Would be good for the kwami’s also as it has been awhile.”

“Owh… owh! Awesome idea Mar! I’ll be over in thirty!” He hung up and Marinette shook her head fondly. 

So for the next thirty minutes she went about tidying up clothes and the dishes that had been laying around despite it being Jason’s turn for the chores. She put the dishes in the sink to soak and plated up some food for her half of the kwami’s and left out a plate for Adrien to do the same when he got here. 

She knocked on the secret door to alert the kwamis that she wanted something. She smiled when Trixx and Duusu barreled through the wall in a ball. Closely followed by Barkk who was snickering into her paws. “Hi you three. Having fun?”

Barkk nodded and swayed in the air. “We’re currently at a tie. forty nine each. We were just about to start again when you knocked. Is everything okay?” 

“Everything is fine.” Marinette petted the little dog kwami reassuringly. “Just wanted to let you guys know that food is out and Adrien will be here soon with the others.”

Duusu squealed as she danced around in the air in excitement after escaping Trixx’s paws. “Owh! This is so exciting! I wondering how they are all doing? Do you think Wayzz is learning to have fun with Plagg or or Plagg has learned to chill out? Owh maybe maybe!...”

Marinette chuckled as Duusu excitedly babbled her questions before being poked on the nose by Trixx. “Yes?”

“Where’s my kit?” 

“He left twenty or so moments ago. He’ll be back tonight before heading out to patrol with the bats if you wish to join him?”

Jason and Trixx weren’t a permanent pairing just yet but there have been a few times where Trixx has asked to go with the vigilante to help out with cases. Jason was ecstatic when the fox wanted to help out as it greatly helped out on the more stealther mission where misdirection was needed. The Necklace had transformed into a leather wristband with the foxtail wrapped up in it. If things went well tonight she would talk it over with Adrien to see if he was okay with Jason becoming part of the order alongside them, Chloe and Ivan. 

Trixx was about to reply when the door to her apartment was burst open by an exuberant Adrien. “Honey i’m hooome~”

“Kitty!” The three Kwami rushed at him and had him laughing and partly sneezing due to Duusu’s feathers tickling his nose. He was glad to find out that he only had a small reaction to the bird kwami when it came to his feather allergy. They still felt it was best for Marinette to keep them safe instead of him just in case.

“Hello hello hello!” Adrien laughed out and and wriggled when the trio raided him for the other Kwami. He held up his hands in surrender, one which held a small jewelry case and a bag of food. “Give me some space and i’ll let them out.”

The trio cheered and left him to go get the other kwami from their room whilst Adrien settled the case on the island and flicked the release mechanism open. One by one the five that he had came out and circled him as he then began plating up their food. Kalkki and Plagg had made them scared before the canines and bird had got at Adrien. 

The island then was covered by all fourteen kwami munching on their chosen food and chatted amongst themselves. Though once Plagg had his camembert and Tikki her cookies they floated over to their guardians that had moved over to the sofa in order to get comfy. Plagg rather not hear about the date again but he didn’t feel up to being overwhelmed by the others just yet. Besides he missed his Tikki cuddles and knew she was a dope for the romance stuff. Yuck.

Kaalki was happy to be reunited with Ziggy as they shared their salt and sugar cubes. Wayzz, Nooroo and Longg chatted softly amongst themselves over some fruit tea and digestives. Sass swallowed quail eggs whole as he listened to Mullo and Barkk and their small adventures they had through the apartment building. Roarr was kind enough to help Orikko get the paint of their talons whilst Duusu twittered on about the joys of the painting she saw the rooster do earlier to Daizzi. Trixx and Xuppu weren't too sure what to do with themselves so was happily bouncing between conversations as they chewed on jerky and banana chips. 

Marinette tucked her feet underneath herself as Adrien just collapsed onto the sofa in a happy heap. She was pleased to see her partner so happy after everything that's happened. She just found it funny that it was yet another Wayne that was the cause of it. Maybe she thought about setting Chloe up with Tim. For now it was the knight and prince that needed to get together a bit more first before she went further down that line. At least she didn’t have to hold Chloe's hand as much as she does Adrien when it came to relationship stuff.

Adrien couldn’t seem to keep the dopey look on his face off as he stared at the ceiling and happily sighed. “Is this how it felt for you when you started dating Jason?”

“Not really.” She giggled at his face took on a form of shock that she had to boop him on the nose like the good old days. “Remember I was fifteen and he was nineteen when we first met. He didn’t feel comfortable and truthfully neither did I, but we did feel some sort of connection so we didn’t want to lose that. So after designing the leather jacket that he loves so much we decided to start up as a friendship, while we dealt with things, till I was older and he was ready for that sort of commitment.” 

“Ah yea… forgot about that.” He laughed sheepishly as he rubbed his neck. 

“It's alright.” Marinette smiled softly wrapped her arms around herself in small comfort. “We did have other things going on that took precedent.”

Adrien made a non committal sound at the reminder of the hawkmoth fight then the reveal of his family's dark secrets. He was glad to find out that his mother was in a coma only due to her curiosity of Duusu and nothing nefarious. He smiled as he made note to talk to his mother later to see how she was doing with Nathalie at their country home. He was happy to see the two women who practically raised him were sweet and taking care of each other. Despite Nathalie being Mayura, she had done it out of misplaced love and loyalty for a manipulative man that didn’t deserve any love in his life. “At least we have the now.”

“Thankfully” She sunk deeper into the sofa. “Glad Jason was there to give us a bit more training though. It certainly helped with everyday life too. Chole seemed to glow with the big brother treatment she received from him, same can be said about you too.”

“It was nice knowing someone out with family cared for me, that wasn’t you or Chloe. Though I think I gained way too many fans after that swim ad. Though it was worth it to see those surprised faces at seeing me with washboard abs.” He laughed as well as grimaced at the memory. Lila seemed to have tried extra hard after that to get with him much to their disgust. “Does his family know about you yet?”

“Nope. Not yet. His family know that Red Hood has a rare partner, every now again, out with the family. But not that Jason has had a girlfriend for five years now.”

Jason had been the one to introduce her to the family as MDC when she first came to Gotham four years ago and needed some clients to get her started in the new city. Tim had been a fan since he saw Jason’s trademark jacket and was ecstatic to get a chance to meet her. There was slight teasing to begin with with only just knowing her so they decided to leave out that they were dating as they didn’t want to sour the relationship with others' pushiness to get together. Especially as it had only been a year of the new step in their relationship.

“And you’re still okay with that?”

“Mm hmm. I’ve met them as MDC to do some clothes for the gala and everyday wardrobe. So they know of me just not of my relationship with Jason. They may mean well but I can’t really stand their way of teasing each other” She huffed. “Hasn’t Damien told you about it?”

He nods and snickers a little. “He threatens to chop their tongues out apparently. He says he’s surprised that Jason doesn’t tease him as much as the others. You wouldn’t happen to know the reason why?”

Marinette smirked as they both knew the reason why. “Think it would be okay for Damien to know. Alfred already knows due to his omniscient ways. When you are more sure about where you stand with Damien I’m okay with him knowing about our side jobs.”

“Truly?”

“Truly”

Adrien fist bumped the air and reached over to give Marinette a bone crushing hug. He squealed. “Thank you! I really think that it’s going to work out.”

“Crushing… me…” She squeaked out despite being happy with the excitable affection. She breathed out once she was released with a quick apology. She huffed out a laugh. “Anyways lets get back to why you came over to begin with. How was your date?”

Adrien blushed bashfully and slowly recounted his enchanting tale of his date with his prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next in line is Chloe story. 
> 
> Then we be goin back to Adrien's Diamond case with the other two being in it here and there. 
> 
> much love to you all that Kudo and comment!


End file.
